Whether you are interested in technology or not, it is powering on around you at an ever-increasing rate of change. If a robot can cook the dinner – and probably stack the dishwasher too – what will be next? Certainly driving cars for us, cleaning out drains – you can buy a robotic vacuum cleaner at any appliance store. Robotics is already in use in the meat processing industry, in the dairy shed and mini computers are embedded in pretty much everything.

So should you worry that Artificial Intelligence is overtaking the world as we know it and we should all run for the hills? Or should you be excited at what might become possible in the next 5 years? That’s up to you, but what is certain is that things will be different. Very different.

Technology is going to emerge in all sorts of farm activities and hopefully most of it is going to make you excited for the possibilities of what it will do; to make farming more satisfying day to day, enable you to focus on what is important for you and to improve farm profitability and sustainability. Watch this space for an insight into what might be on the horizon.

My last question is – if robots are doing the cooking and the dishes, where are siblings going to amicably scrap together if not over the kitchen sink?